How To Become A Trusted Voice On LinkedIn

Social networking is crucial when making a name for yourself within your industry. To become a trusted voice among your peers or a thought leader within your segment, there is one platform on which you need to focus your social networking efforts—LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has been where industry insiders and thought leaders have congregated for over a decade now. A thought leader is an individual or firm recognized as an authority in a specific field whose expertise is sought and respected by peers. With goals of growing their network, expanding into new areas, or learning as much as they can from their peers, leaders across business sectors use this site as their base of operations.

So, now that you've got your company off the ground and are impacting your sector, it's time to think about how to position yourself among these movers and shakers, the thought leaders. To help get you started, we've compiled a list of areas often overlooked when folks find their voice on this platform. Take your time; remember that a reputation takes time to establish. We hope these tips help make LinkedIn work for you.

Optimize Your Profile

Before going any farther into the weeds about establishing your reputation as a thought leader, it's crucial to have your profile fully optimized. This is the first place someone will look when they hear about you, read an article you wrote, or follow a link from your company site. Having each section of your profile written in such a way as to give people a good idea of who you are and what you and your business stand for is a critical step.

Header Bio

The first content under your profile picture is the first taste a visitor will get of who you are and what you do. The key is to say enough to pique their interest in reading on without saying too much as to render the rest redundant. Your header bio should be one line, covering your work in broad strokes and using keywords specific to your segment or industry niche.

About section

This is where you can dive into more detail. Expand on what you said above in your bio; explain the keywords you used with key phrases illustrating how you bring your expertise to everything you do. If your bio says “CEO and chief bottlewasher,” your About section should expand on how you optimize every bottle you wash for a great user experience.

Experience section

Here, you bring your background to the fore and let it shine. Unlike on your resume, where you tailor each entry to make it specific for an opening, on LinkedIn, you want to go into details that highlight their relevance to your current position. If you're the CEO of a software startup in the financial technology space, use your experience section to go over how you worked your way up from bank teller to gain a complete understanding of the financial world.

Education section

Sticking with the fintech example, talk it up here if your degree is in Finance. Include links to any projects you completed, extra-curricular activities, etc. If your degree is in English, on the other hand, use this entry to highlight your focus on those extra-curricular and club activities. It's key that you went to college; just tweak how you talk about what you did there to keep it relevant to your current role so it enhances your leadership qualities.

Work in Some Social Proof

To become a trusted thought leader, you need social proof. Social proof is the evidence from others that validates your expertise and builds trust. On LinkedIn, you can bolster your reputation with two key forms of social proof:

• Recommendations: These written testimonials from your connections appear in their own section of your profile. While a recommendation from a former boss is powerful, you can ask any connection to write one. For example, if you gave a keynote at an industry event, ask the organizer for a write-up. If you're new to the market, an esteemed professor from college can also provide a valuable recommendation. The more relevant recommendations your profile has, the easier it is for people to find you through keyword searches.

• Skill Endorsements: These are direct validations tied to the skillset you list on your profile. First, ensure your skills section accurately reflects the industry and sector you are targeting. Using our fintech example, you would list your mastery of the financial industry, advanced calculus, and specific programming languages. Then, strategically ask connections who know these aspects of your work best to endorse you. If you worked on an award-winning team project, reach out to those teammates and ask for their endorsement of your skills.

Grow Your Network Organically

Patience is key to growing your network organically. To be seen as a thought leader and trusted voice, a large number of connections is beneficial—who would you trust more, the contact with "500+ connections" or the one with 59?

To grow your network with relevant contacts, focus on these activities:

• Join Groups and Connect: Become a member of relevant industry groups and connect with industry influencers.
• Engage in Conversations: Add thoughtful insights and comments to posts within these groups and on influencer feeds.
• Share Your Knowledge: Start posting your own updates and short articles to showcase your expertise, but avoid direct sales pitches.

Following current influences in your industry will do a couple of things. Reading what they say will give you a good pulse check on the state of your sector, so you know if your thinking is in line or if you will be seen as a rebel. Either one is great; it all depends on the reputation you're looking for as a thought leader.

Once you’re ensconced and engaging in conversations with the right people, it's OK to ask about a cross-post or at least repost their pieces with your commentary to show that you respect their view and have your own to add. Each of these activities will lead to connection requests. Pick and choose appropriately while remembering the goal at this stage is to increase that connection count.

Bonus: Write Great Content

To a certain extent, this should go without saying, but it is the crux of becoming a thought leader. You must be able to produce great content. Thoughtful, insightful, original, and engaging content is how you establish yourself. Ultimately, a thought leader is a trusted source of industry information, a reputation built on the quality of the content they share.